Cooking Classes Alexandria

Alexandria's converted warehouses, breweries and cafes have made it one of the inner city's food suburbs, and a cooking class here is less a lesson than a long lunch you help make. Sunday Kitchen runs Lebanese home-cooking sessions at the Simon Johnson Cooking School on Ralph Street, led by mother and daughter Karima Hazim Chatila and Sivine Tabbouch. The sessions recreate the weekend lunches of their family home: traditional recipes, the stories behind them, and everyone sitting down together at one table at the end.

Before you book a cooking class in Alexandria:

• Getting there: buses serve Alexandria and Green Square station is in the area. Parking is easier than in the CBD, which helps if guests are bringing a car.
• The experience: sessions are mostly demonstration with some hands-on cooking, built around a theme such as vegetarian mezza, Tripoli's spicy tahini fish, lamb, or a breakfast of za'atar manoush, labneh and foul.
• Group size: private group bookings take 15 to 25 people, with the date and menu customised for your group.
• Booking: prices start from $250 per person, and sessions regularly sell out, so book well ahead of your date.
• Food and drinks: you eat throughout, with starters shared early and a main feast to finish. All food is halal, and Lebanese wines paired to the menu can be added at checkout.

Lunch sessions run from 11am to 2pm and breakfast sessions from 10.30am to 1.30pm, which suits a milestone birthday lunch or a work team day. There is nothing to bring, and everyone leaves with a booklet of the recipes, local suppliers and a pantry list. Because most of the cooking is demonstrated, the group spends the time talking and asking questions rather than worrying about chopping speed, which makes it a relaxed choice for guests who don't cook much.